For many years, marshmallow flavored variegating syrups have been combined with ice cream, ice milk, mellorine and other frozen desserts for the purpose of adding flavor, variety, and eye appeal to these confections. These ingredients or confectionary additives of marshmallow and similar whipped variegating materials have often been purchased in a prewhipped or complete state, and have been added to the ice cream or frozen confection either by simultaneously pumping the variegate and the frozen confection through a common line or extrusion nozzle into the final container, or by placing the marshmallow or similar material on the top or bottom of the frozen confection by means of special filling attachments designed for this purpose. Alternatively, whipped marshmallow or variegate has been blended with frozen confection prepared separately and frozen together with the incorporation of air in an ice cream freezer such as those continuous ice cream freezers readily available on the market and sold by Creamery Package Company (Crepaco) or Cherry-Burrell Corporation.
A great difficulty is incurred in the incorporation of certain variegates with certain types of frozen confections with the variegate losing its character and blending improperly with the remainder of the frozen confection. Pre-whipped marshmallow, for example, contains about 80% sugar solids in contrast to about 40% sugar solids for the ice cream or other frozen dessert with which it is blended. As a result there is a differential of freezing and melting points so that the consumer often ends up with the marshmallow melting and sinking to the bottom of the finished packages even when the confection is stored at conventional temperatures used for ice cream. In addition, pre-whipped marshmallow is bulky and difficult to handle besides costing substantially more than the basic ice cream it is meant to flavor.
A blend of egg whites, water, sugars, gums and appropriate flavors can be blended in a tank and frozen in an ice cream freezer to make a marshmallow-like substance. The problem is the lack of the characteristic "stretch" of marshmallow and the difficulty of getting the ingredients into solutions in the type of tanks with slow agitation such as those found in most ice cream and/or frozen dessert plants.
The prior art teachings such as those in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,525,624 and 3,582,350 of Irving Rubenstein illustrate techniques that can be applied to the incorporation of variegates into frozen desserts. These patents describe a technology for substituting modified soya protein for the more conventional egg whites either partially or completely when a frozen dessert or dessert additive is to be made in an ice cream freezer. If the examples described in these patents have the total sugar solids increased to about 50%, then this modification would result in a marshmallow-type product.
The egg white method and the soya protein method are workable ones but must be carefully supervised since the marshmallow-type variegate mix resulting therefrom is not compatible with fat so that contamination with even a small amount of ice cream mix, fat or emulsifier containing product will inhibit the resulting whip. In addition, the marshmallow emitted from a freezer from this process is quite soft so that it is difficult to maintain a sharp line of delineation or demarcation between the marshmallow and the basic matrix of ice cream or other frozen dessert.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and novel formulation for marshmallow and other whipped variegates which are readily combinable with ice cream and other frozen desserts and which maintain a sharp line of delineation or demarcation between the frozen dessert matrix and the variegate.